"I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth
here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny
that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an
insane love of football, of celebration and of music." Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona

Them brollys and all that alley stuff is so 80's. I hope they keep them and dont give in to fashion. They look so dated now but in another 15 years i'll probably be trying to get them listed or something!

SURVEY: Engineers.WORK to sort out Manchester's controversial B of the Bang sculpture has finally started - but its long-term future hangs in the balance.

* B of the Bang photogallery

Engineers have begun removing nine spikes from the landmark to test them for signs of stress damage. They include the ones overhanging the slip road at the junction of Ashton New Road and Alan Turing Way in East Manchester, which has been closed for more than a year for safety reasons after a spike fell off in January last year.

The news is a major victory for the M.E.N's Get It Sorted campaign, which has been pressing for action on B of the Bang since September last year.

But the fact engineers working on the sculpture have admitted for the first time its long-term future is uncertain comes as another bitter blow in a long-running saga.

Explosion

B of the Bang, commissioned to mark the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, was designed by ex-Manchester student Thomas Heatherwick. It is the largest public artwork in Britain and its 180 steel spikes - stretching to 184ft - are supposed to capture the explosion of an athletics starting pistol.

The sculpture was originally due to be finished by July, 2003, but wasn't officially opened until January last year. By then, the M.E.N. had revealed the cost - met mainly from public money for art - had rocketed from £750,000 to £1.42m because the contractors did not include the price of installation in the original quote.

TROUBLED: The spiky icon.Spike

When a 7ft spike fell off in January - just days before Olympic hero Linford Christie was due to perform the opening ceremony - the slip road was closed and urgent testing began to find out why B of the Bang was moving so much in the wind. Since then, 170 special weights have been fitted to the spikes.

A spokeswoman for New East Manchester - NEM - the regeneration company that commissioned the sculpture, said the consortium that won the contract to erect B of the Bang was working to a fixed-price contract which could not rise above the agreed £1.42m.

Keith Rudd, a civil engineer at the firm Arup, who is working on the project for the city council, said: "All the nine spikes should be off by the end of the month and then we need to wait six to eight weeks for the testing.

Results

"We will have to wait to see the results. We have got to be sure it is safe - that is our number one priority. At the moment, it is impossible to say what will happen.

"Since the spike fell off, we have fitted weights in the tips and no further damage has been recorded since then. The spikes are not vibrating as violently as they were. There is nothing to suggest its condition has got worse.

"But we are looking at it in terms of a 50-year lifespan and we need to be 100 per cent certain."

Tom Russell, chief executive of NEM, said: "It's a complicated structure so we need to be completely confident the solution is the right one and any defects are identified."

"I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth
here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny
that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an
insane love of football, of celebration and of music." Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona

Asked one of the fellas working on it today and he said the statue is going back - although he didnt sound too convincing - perhaps its me just being paranoid.

The plinth today. Free the Peterloo Four!!

__________________

"I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth
here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny
that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an
insane love of football, of celebration and of music." Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona

I thought "Adrift" was being relocated onto this site; and had assumed it would replace the Four Stakhanovites.

Am I wrong?

Forgive me for my ignorance, but what is 'Adrift'? And do you know if there's any plans for relocating the Peterloo Four elsewhere? Around Manchester Central perhaps?

__________________

"I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth
here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny
that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an
insane love of football, of celebration and of music." Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona

I have been told all the answers to the above questions but because my mind is full of fluffy bunnies and Cadbury Mini Rolls i have forgotten. I seem to remember the phrases 'technical issues' and unresolvable' being used with regards the 4 Eunuchs (it was made of sealing wax, pitch and gossamer after all) and i do believe Adrift is replacing it.
I have a picture of Adrift somewhere Beardy if i can be bothered to find it but it used to be where No 1 Piccadilly is now. Ring any bells?http://www.aidan.co.uk/photo5048.htm

I have been told all the answers to the above questions but because my mind is full of fluffy bunnies and Cadbury Mini Rolls i have forgotten. I seem to remember the phrases 'technical issues' and unresolvable' being used with regards the 4 Eunuchs (it was made of sealing wax, pitch and gossamer after all) and i do believe Adrift is replacing it.
I have a picture of Adrift somewhere Beardy if i can be bothered to find it but it used to be where No 1 Piccadilly is now. Ring any bells?http://www.aidan.co.uk/photo5048.htm

Ta LongClothStrategicallyPlaced

Quite kinky isn't it! Any idea what its about? What it symbolises?

__________________

"I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth
here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny
that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an
insane love of football, of celebration and of music." Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona

In 1907 (I think) the old Royal Infirmay and the Lunatic Asylum in Piccadilly moved to Oxford Road - creating a vacant site. There were many suggestions for public facilities to go in their place - a concert hall, a cathedral, an extension to Piccadilly gardens (which then occupied the area now taken up by tram-lines in front of Primark/Lewis's).

But at that time there was no proper art gallery in the city; the City Art collection was "camping out" in Barry's Royal Manchester Institution building, but it was much too small. So a local businessman commissioned an artistic statue, "Adrift", by the Irish scultptor John Cassidy - an allegorical reprsentation of humanity on the seas of life; as a family on a raft with the father waving to attract rescuers - in the expectation that a new Art Gallery would be placed on the northern "gardens" site. The rest of the area (i.e. all of what is currently the gardens) was concreted over and used for temporary buildings to house the City Library (which had just been kicked out of the Old Town Hall building in King St, which had been sold to Lloyd's Bank).

The temporary library buildings remained till the New City Library opened, whereupon the whole area was dug up for air-raid shelters.

In 1953, the Piccadilly was re-arranged in commemoration of the coronation. The formal sunken gardens we remember were created on the site of the air-raid shelters, a fountain was erected on the site of the old gardens, and "Adrift" was moved to Portland Street - in front of what is now the Portland Thistle Hotel.

It was dismantled again in 1999 when One Piccadilly was in planning - and is now due to be re-erected in the Peace Gardens (i.e. close to the Mancester Art Gallery as intended).

"I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth
here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny
that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an
insane love of football, of celebration and of music." Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona

Cheers Unremarkable. Good to hear that plans are continuing to progress for Cathedral Square:

There would be part of a major redesign of Cathedral Gardens and Victoria Arches. Victoria Street and Cateaton Street would be paved, existing trees around the cathedral moved, lighting installed, new landscaping and walkways, and a pedestrian bridge linking to the Greengate development in Salford just across the River Irwell.